My Delivery

If you have questions regarding your admission, call:

• Virtua Mount Holly: 609-914-7070
• Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes: 856-757-3670
• Virtua Voorhees: 856-247-3836

If you have questions regarding your insurance coverage or billing arrangements, call:

• Virtua Mount Holly: 609-267-0700 x43059
• Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes: 844-201-6309
• Virtua Voorhees: 856-247-3300

Remember, no matter how well you’ve planned, there’s no way to anticipate all the possibilities that accompany the birth experience. It’s good to remain flexible and to remember, we all share a common goal – the safe delivery of your baby.

A birth plan is a simple one page statement outlining your preferences during the birth of your baby. If you desire to have a formalized birth plan, here are some things to know:

• The appropriate time to share your desires is during your pregnancy. You can work with your doctor or midwife to develop a plan during your monthly appointments. 
• While it is helpful to share you desires, there's no substitute for the medical expertise of your doctor or midwife.
• Birth plans cannot anticipate all the possibilities that accompany the birth experience.
• Remember to be flexible as you look toward your birth experience, and keep in mind that you and your doctor share a common goal - the health and safety of you and your baby.

Read this letter to patients.

A doula is trained to give non-medical assistance to women during labor, which can include emotional and physical support. If you are considering a doula to be a part of your 3-person labor support team, here are some things to remember:

• The doula cannot perform medical tasks. 
• Decisions about your medical care will be made by you and your doctor or midwife. 
• Talk to your doctor or midwife about your decision to have a doula present during your birth. He/she may be able to give you names of doulas who have attended births at Virtua in the past. 
• Doulas typically charge for their services. Check with your insurance to see if doulas are covered under your plan.                 

Read this letter to patients.

Consider these things when choosing a doula.

When preparing for your hospital stay, consider what you and your partner or coach will need before, during and after delivery. Also, consider what you’ll need for your baby.

Coming to labor and delivery:

• Admission documentation identification (such as driver’s license)
• Insurance card
• Claim form (if necessary)
• Co-pay (if applicable)
• Eyeglasses or contact lenses and case and toiletries

• Bathrobe, nightgown, slippers and socks
• Nursing bra, breast pads and maternity underwear
• Going-home outfit

• Money for vending machines
• Guest meals available in the cafeteria (credit cards accepted)
• Basic toiletries
• Change of clothes
• Snacks and reading material
• Camera/video recorder and battery back-up 

• Car seat
• Going-home outfit
• Receiving blanket
• Pacifier (If you choose to use one, please note that a pacifier may interfere with breastfeeding.) 

• Pack two bags - one for labor and delivery and one for after delivery. For your convenience, please leave after-labor items in your car until after you’ve been moved to the mother-baby unit.
• Leave jewelry, large sums of money, credit cards and other valuables at home.

Before your baby arrives, you'll need to review your insurance coverage for labor and delivery.

Important note: Typically insurance companies require notification of birth within 24 hours after birth to enroll your new baby into your policy; it is critical that you consult your insurance carrier to ensure your baby’s coverage.

Virtua accepts most major insurance plans. To ensure Virtua accepts your insurance carrier, call 1-888-Virtua-3 (1-888-847-8823).

Unless you experience problems with your pregnancy or go into labor spontaneously, your delivery should occur after the 39^th week for the health of your baby and you.

Find out why you should wait.

• At Virtua Mount Holly, enter through the emergency department.
• At Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes, enter through the emergency department.
• At Virtua Voorhees, please park in lot "C" and enter through the Obstetrics entrance. 

Preregistered:
If you are preregistered, an admission representative will simply verify your information to ensure it's accurate and make copies of the necessary documentation (e.g. insurance card). Preregister here for your delivery.

Not preregistered:
If you have not preregistered, the admission representative will ask you to provide identification, emergency contact and insurance information. Depending on how your labor is progressing, this may be done at your bedside.

If you think you are in labor and come to the hospital, you'll be evaluated and monitored in our triage area.

About the triage area:

• One member of your support team may be with you during this time.
• Your children can stay at your side until your care plan is determined.

If you are in labor:

• You will be admitted to the labor and delivery unit, where your other support team members can join you.
• We ask that your children be taken home where they will be more comfortable, unless you've made prior arrangements with the nursing director to include them in your support team.

Virtua offers a complete range of anesthesia services to help make your delivery safe and comfortable. If you are planning a vaginal birth, we offer patient-controlled epidural anesthesia (PCEA). PCEA gives you the ability to adjust your level of pain control, so that you can more fully experience the joy of childbirth. If you are planning a cesarean section, we offer a few anesthetic options.

• Epidural anesthesia: if you have a labor epidural in place, it can be used for a cesarean section.
• Spinal anesthesia: similar to an epidural but preferred for operative delivery.
• General anesthesia: for women who cannot have the spinal/epidural anesthesia.

Vaginal birth:

• You can have up to 3 support people in the labor room with you.
• These three people will be given wrist bands, which will give them access to the labor and delivery unit. 

Cesarean section:

• You can have 1 support person in the operating and recovery rooms with you. 

Support team:

• If you’d like a child under 13 to be a part of your support team, please discuss this in advance with the labor and delivery nursing director. An adult member of your support team must accompany the child at all times.
• Since privacy laws prevent us from giving out patient information, we ask that your support team members update family and friends on your condition and progress. 

Care partner:

• After you've delivered, your care partner, who is often the baby's father, will be asked to wear a lanyard for identification purposes. Your care partner may stay with you during your hospital stay.

Contact:

• Nursing Director at Virtua Voorhees Hospital: 856-247-3929
• Nursing Director at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital: 856-757-3654
• Nursing Director at Virtua Mount Holly: 609-914-6820

We share in your family’s excitement about your new arrival, but it’s no surprise that giving birth can take a very long time. For the comfort of your family and friends who are not part of your birthing support team, we recommend that they wait at home until your baby has arrived. Also, for safety and privacy issues, we cannot allow visitors to wait outside your room or in the hallway.

More than 90 percent of car seats are improperly used or installed. To ensure that your infant car seat is properly fitted into your vehicle, get your car seat inspected by Virtua’s certified child passenger safety seat technicians. This free service is available to all families that are leaving the hospital between 10:30 am and noon.

Virtua Mount Holly
You can obtain a birth certificate from Mount Holly Township. You’ll receive a form with ordering instructions in your discharge packet before you leave the hospital. If you need more information, call the Virtua Mount Holly birth registry department at 609-914-7018.

Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes
You can obtain a birth certificate from the City of Camden. You’ll receive a form with ordering instructions in your discharge packet before you leave the hospital. If you need more information, call Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes VIP clerk at 856-757-3503.

Virtua Voorhees
You can obtain a birth certificate from Voorhees Township. You’ll receive a form with ordering instructions in your discharge packet before you leave the hospital. If you need more information, call the Virtua Voorhees birth registry department at 856-247-2827 or 856-247-2836 .

Before you leave the hospital, you’ll receive a discharge packet that contains:

• Birth certificate form 
• Discharge information sheet 
• Postpartum and breastfeeding support group information 
• "What to expect when you take your baby home" booklet 

The necessary forms will be collected by your nurse before you leave the hospital.

The first hour after your baby’s birth, or the golden hour, is ideally reserved for you, your partner and your baby to get to know each other. Friends and other family members do not participate in this special hour unless you invite them to do so. The Golden Hour is important because:

• During the first hour of life, a healthy baby shows a high level of alertness and an ability to interact with parents. 
• An infant recognizes his/her parents’ voices and smells. 
• This is the ideal time for the baby to be introduced to the parents through snuggling and breastfeeding. 
• This period of time, also known as “familiarization,” calms the baby after birth and enhances the bonding (attachment) of parents with their baby. The medical and nursing staff will help you in this special time together.

As often as possible and when medical conditions allow, the delivering doctor will place your baby on your bare chest immediately after birth. Studies show that skin-to-skin contact makes babies happier, helps regulate their temperature, and stabilizes heart and breathing rates.

Shortly after your baby’s birth, the nurse will administer eye ointment to protect against infection and give a vitamin K injection to assist with blood clotting. If you have questions regarding these treatments, discuss them with your baby’s physician prior to your arrival at the hospital.

After you and your baby have recovered from delivery, you will be transported together to one of our large mother-baby rooms. The rooms provide space and privacy for your new family and promote 24-hour rooming in. We encourage you and your baby to remain together 24 hours a day and discourage prolonged separation periods. While rooming in, you can achieve two important parenting goals: Get to know your baby well and help your baby feel good.
 
Benefits include:

• Content babies: Babies sleep better, cry less, gain weight better and have decreased jaundice.
• Confident moms: The time you spend learning from the nursing staff while rooming in will help you be confident and secure in caring for your baby at home.
• Quality sleep: Studies show that mothers get the same amount and quality of sleep because they sleep while the baby sleeps.
• Success with breastfeeding: If you are breastfeeding, 24-hour rooming in has been shown to increase breast milk volumes. Research has also demonstrated that there are fewer incidences of breastfeeding problems, such as sore nipples and engorgement, for women who take advantage of 24-hour rooming in. Please ask for help any time you need it.  

Should you not feel well enough to care for your baby, or if your baby requires a medical procedure such as circumcision, there is a nursery in each of our mother-baby units.

When your baby arrives, your care partner may be with you and your newborn any time during your hospital stay. For your safety and privacy, all fathers or care partners will be given a lanyard to identify them as a caregiver. Other friends and family are welcome to visit you. Visitors must check in to receive a visitor's pass.

If you need special treatment or close monitoring after delivery, we may limit visits from family and friends (excluding your baby’s father or support person) to 20 to 30 minutes per visit. This enables you to get the rest necessary to get well. During this time, a maximum of 3 people may be at your bedside at one time.

Quiet time is from 2 to 4 pm. We encourage you to limit visitors, so that you can rest and bond with your newborn. But if you choose, you can invite friends and family to join you during this time.

In addition, for the safety and health of our patients, we ask that those with contagious illnesses, such as a cold or the flu, refrain from visiting the hospital.

Receive a free portrait session of your new baby when you deliver at Virtua Mount Holly or Virtua Voorhees. Proofs will be available to view at your bedside immediately after the session. There is no obligation to purchase. In fact, the photo can be automatically posted online free of charge. Family and friends can view the photo on our private Web site and have all their questions – gender, name, weight, date and time of birth – answered. Plus, parents can add a special message, and friends and family can sign the baby's guestbook. Your baby’s Web site is password-protected; only the people you’ve invited will have access.

Here’s how Virtua Nursery works:

• After you are settled in your room, the photographer will stop by to schedule a time for the session and answer your questions.
• Consent and photo order forms will be offered for you to complete.
• Immediately following the photo session, you can select the photo.
• If you choose to order prints, they will be shipped directly to your home.
• In one-to-two days, the photo will be posted online at the Our365 Webnursery. 
• The site is password protected, so a password is needed to view the baby’s photo. This password is given to you while you’re still in the hospital. You can then share the password with family and friends.
• The photo will be accessible for 6 months.

Click here for your baby's portrait.